Chapter Twenty-Three: Born Different, Died Shared Burial (The Finale)
Qiao Yuan stumbled and rushed into the ruins of the armory, which was filled with gunpowder smoke and scorching heat.
The broken steel bars pierced the sky like the bones of a ferocious beast, the burning wooden planks crackled, and sparks hit his bare hands like scalding sand.
He trudged through the rubble, his trousers torn by shrapnel, blood seeping through and forming dark red scabs mixed with dust.
With each step, he might step on scattered bullet casings or charred cloth, and sharp pebbles would hurt his feet, but he was oblivious to it all, his eyes fixed only on the raging sea of fire and the faint outlines of human figures appearing and disappearing in the thick smoke.
"Jintang... Jintang..." he called out hoarsely, his voice torn apart by the aftershocks of the explosion and the roar of the collapsing building, almost out of tune.
The thick smoke choked him, causing him to cough violently. His vision was blurred by the heavy black smoke, and he could only rely on an almost instinctive intuition to grope his way towards the core area of the armory in his memory.
Suddenly, a faint, almost imperceptible groan reached his ears. Qiao Yuan's heart leaped, as if he had grasped a lifeline in the darkness.
He stopped, held his breath, and listened intently.
“...Qiao...Yuan…”
It's her! It really is her voice!
Although he rushed into the fire with only a one in ten thousand chance of finding her in the ruins, this faint sound was like a thunderbolt that shattered Qiao Yuan's chaotic consciousness.
Following the direction of the sound, he climbed up a pile of crumbling ruins using both his hands and feet.
The bricks and stones were loose, making a dangerous "creaking" sound, and could collapse again at any moment, but at this moment he had already disregarded his own life and death.
"Jintang! I'm here! Where are you?!" he shouted hoarsely as he climbed, his voice even more raspy from excitement and the smoke.
After passing through a section of destroyed beams, he finally saw the figure that haunted his dreams under a relatively intact load-bearing wall.
Lin Jintang's body was half-pressed down by the heavy precast concrete slab. Her face was blackened by gunpowder smoke and covered with mud and blood. Her once bright eyes were now tightly closed, and her long eyelashes were covered with dust. Only the slight rise and fall of her chest proved that she was still alive.
"Jintang!" Qiao Yuan roared and rushed over, carefully kneeling beside her, afraid that his movements would cause the heavy weight pressing on her to collapse further. He reached out his trembling hand, wanting to touch her, but afraid of hurting her, so it hovered in mid-air, his fingertips shaking violently.
"Jintang... wake up... look at me..." he choked up, calling her name softly over and over again.
Perhaps it was his voice that awakened her, or perhaps it was the instinct for survival that made her struggle. Lin Jintang's eyelids trembled a few times with difficulty, and she finally slowly opened them a crack. Her cloudy vision focused for a long time before she could barely make out the man in front of her, whose face was covered in blood and who looked utterly disheveled.
"Qiao...Yuan?" Her voice was weak and feeble, filled with confusion and disbelief, as if she were confirming whether she was dreaming. "Is it you?...Am I...already dead?"
"You're not dead! You're not dead! Jintang, look at me, it's me, it's Qiao Yuan!" Qiao Yuan hurriedly grasped her still-movable right hand. Her hand was ice-cold, and Qiao Yuan tightly wrapped it in his palm, trying to pass on a sliver of warmth. "Hold on, I'll get you out of here right away! I'll definitely get you out of here!"
Lin Jintang looked at him, her eyes gradually shifting from confusion to clarity, only to be replaced by a complex mix of emotions: pain, relief, and a lingering attachment buried deep in her heart.
She shook her head weakly, a bitter smile tugging at the corner of her lips: "Don't waste your energy... the precast concrete slabs are too heavy... You... hurry, this place will explode again soon, you must leave, there might still be a glimmer of hope..."
"Jintang, now that I'm here, I won't leave you alone!" Qiao Yuan roared, his eyes red. "I said I would protect you! I owe you! I owe you for the rest of my life! How can I leave you here alone!"
“Don’t be silly… Anian is still outside. You have to find her… You have to raise her. In the future, I want you all to come and pay your respects to me…”
Upon hearing Anian's name, Qiao Yuan's eyes wavered slightly. After all, this was his daughter whom he hadn't seen for five years. Now that they had just reunited, the thought of being separated was undoubtedly excruciating.
But as he looked at the fading light in Lin Jintang's eyes and felt the increasingly weak warmth in her palms, a corner of his heart instantly crumbled.
He bent down and pressed his forehead against hers, which was covered in blood. Hot tears mixed with the dust on his face slid down and dripped onto her cold cheeks.
“A-Nian will grow up well with the help of her comrades. But Jin-Tang, I can’t lose you again. Ten years ago I couldn’t protect you, five years ago I couldn’t let you go, and now I won’t let you face all this alone again. If we’re going to leave, we’ll leave together; if we’re going to die, we’ll die together!”
Lin Jintang stared at him blankly. In those eyes that were once filled with lifelessness, a ripple appeared, like a long-awaited rain on a dry riverbed.
She opened her mouth as if to say something, but only let out a weak gasp. Qiao Yuan quickly brought his ear close to her lips, afraid of missing a single word.
"Qiao Yuan..." Her voice was as soft as a feather, "Do you... still remember... that rainy day in 1931?"
Qiao Yuan's body stiffened abruptly, and that long-buried memory surged forth like a flood bursting its banks. How could he forget? That Jiangcheng during the rainy season, that girl with the oil-paper umbrella and the fragrance of osmanthus blossoms—that one glance sealed his fate and bound him to her for life.
“I remember…I remember…” he choked out, tears blurring his vision again. “I’ve kept the handkerchief you gave me. I still remember the scent of osmanthus on it.”
A faint smile slowly crept onto Lin Jintang's lips, a smile as poignant and fleeting as a night-blooming cereus blooming in the darkness.
“Actually… from that day on… I…” Her words were broken and fragmented, each word seemingly uttered with all her might, “In prison… the first time I saw you… wearing a prison uniform, covered in wounds… I thought… I saw you again on that rainy day… Do you know? At that moment… you were the only light in my despair…”
Qiao Yuan felt as if an invisible hand was gripping his heart tightly, causing him so much pain that he could hardly breathe.
He always thought that their encounter in prison was the beginning of their entanglement, but he never expected that, unbeknownst to him, she had already regarded him as her salvation in the darkness.
He recalled her later indifference, her struggle, and the resolute way she pressed the gun against his heart. He realized that behind all of that lay such deep and contradictory emotions.
"I'm sorry... Jintang... I'm sorry..." He sobbed uncontrollably, repeating those three words over and over. He didn't know what else to say besides apologize. The misunderstandings, hurts, and mutual torment of those years, now seemed like sharp knives, cutting their hearts until they bled profusely.
“Don’t… say sorry…” Lin Jintang gently shook her head, a hint of relief in her eyes. “When Bai Mu… came back… I… I was so happy… I thought… I could… let go… But… Qiao Yuan… my heart… it wouldn’t listen to me…” Her voice grew softer and softer, her breathing weaker and weaker. “I think… I’ve always… loved you… from that rainy day… until now…”
"I know...I know..." Qiao Yuan held her hand tightly, as if trying to transfer his body heat and life force to her. "Jintang, I love you too! I've always loved you! I've never stopped! I'm such a bastard! I'm the one who hurt you! If there's an afterlife...if there's an afterlife, I'll definitely treat you well, let you be that carefree student again, let you be safe and happy, and have a fulfilling and happy life!"
A glimmer of light seemed to flash in Lin Jintang's eyes. She looked at Qiao Yuan with a gentle gaze, like a pool of spring water—a gentleness Qiao Yuan had never seen before. "The next life...?" she murmured softly, her smile widening. "Okay... I'll wait for you..."
Before he could finish speaking, a violent tremor came from beneath his feet, and the overhead beam creaked and groaned, accompanied by the sound of falling stones.
Qiao Yuan looked up and saw that the load-bearing wall above had developed huge cracks, and the entire ruin was teetering on the verge of collapse. Clearly, a second explosion could happen at any moment.
"Jintang! Hold on! I will definitely get you out of here!" Qiao Yuan suddenly came to his senses, his eyes becoming incredibly determined. He looked around and saw a fairly thick steel pipe lying nearby. He gritted his teeth, inserted the steel pipe into the gap in the precast slab, and pried it open with all his might.
"Jintang, just bear with it! It'll be over soon!" Qiao Yuan's eyes were red as he frantically pried at the steel pipe. He knew time was running out, and every second could be the last chance.
However, at that moment, an even stronger tremor came, accompanied by a deafening roar, and the overhead beam finally gave way and collapsed!
"Jintang!" Qiao Yuan cried out in anguish. In the instant the beam crashed down, he threw himself on top of Lin Jintang without hesitation, using his back to create the last little space for her.
A sharp pain shot through his back, as if all the bones in his body were being crushed. Qiao Yuan's vision went black, and he almost fainted. But he gritted his teeth and, with his last bit of strength, looked down at Lin Jintang beneath him.
Lin Jintang's eyes were still fixed on him, filled with shock, pain, and a hint of tender satisfaction. She reached out, wanting to touch his face, but her hand fell limply to her side in mid-air.
"Qiao Yuan...we...can finally...live and die together..."
These were the last words Lin Jintang left behind.
As Qiao Yuan watched her slowly close her eyes, feeling the last trace of warmth slipping from her palm, the string of support in his heart finally snapped completely. With his last ounce of strength, he pulled her tightly into his arms, as if trying to meld her into his very bones.
"Jintang...don't be afraid...on the road to the underworld...I'll be with you..."
His voice grew softer and softer, his consciousness receding like the tide, and darkness completely engulfed him. In his last moments before losing consciousness, he seemed to smell the faint fragrance of osmanthus again, and see the girl with the oil-paper umbrella at the end of the rainy alley, smiling gently at him.
That smile, just like when we first met, was clean and warm, illuminating his entire gloomy life.
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